If you have watched the movies in “In Harihar Nagar” series, you might have wondered how the irresponsible, even dumb, Appukkuttan went on to be a dental surgeon. What could possibly have motivated this young man with absolutely no goals or ambition to take up the exacting medical profession? I think there is a subtle subconscious influence that led Appukkuttan to be a dentist – something that the makers of the movie didn’t want to openly say, but left for us to infer.

In “Left Right Left”, the reason Vattu Jayan chose to be a police officer and ran after money is because he was exposed to the power of the police uniform and of money during his childhood itself. In the movie “Bodyguard”, the reason Jayakrishnan wanted to be a policeman first and then a hoodlum was that he thought people were afraid of a policeman and even a policeman was afraid of the other.

In these two cases, this motivation has been explicitly brought out. In the case of Appukkuttan, however, the movie is silent on why Appukkuttan chose to be a dentist, while giving us enough clues to arrive at our own conclusion. I think that his decision is directly related to the indelible psychological effect of the torture he had to undergo at the hands of John Honai and his men.

Appukkuttan, who had been a happy go lucky person so far, fearing nothing in his life, suddenly realized the terrifying power of the dental grinder. If a casual thug wielding a dental grinder can be so intimidating, how much more so would a real dentist armed with his entire array of tools be? This thought had a subconscious influence on Appukkuttan, which eventually led him to be a dentist.